1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic soldering apparatus which effects soldering for forming a solder film on each lead portion of a workpiece such as a dual in-line package type integrated circuit (IC).
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hitherto, lead portions of workpieces, such as ICs, are soldered as follows. The workpieces are respectively loaded onto jigs adapted to retain a multiplicity of pieces by fixing the same with a plurality of support rods, and the jigs are respectively mounted on a multiplicity of transportation holders on a soldering line. Then, the holders are moved along the soldering line to apply a solder film to each of the lead portions of the workpieces. However, the operation for loading a multiplicity of workpieces onto the jigs and the operation for mounting the jigs on the holders must be manually conducted, and the unloading and dismounting operations are also manually performed. Therefore, the operator suffers an exceedingly large load, and these manual operations prevent the whole steps from being made full-automatic, disadvantageously. Further, the jigs and holders are inconveniently high in cost, since they require a large amount of corrosion-resistant metal. In addition, since the solder or the like attached to the jigs or the like is undesirably taken out therewith, a large amount of solder or the like is consumed, disadvantageously. Although there is another type of transportation means in which each workpiece is individually clamped to effect soldering, this transportation means is not satisfactory for soldering lead portions of a multiplicity of pieces, since this type of transportation means may be high in cost due to special configurations of IC parts and the workpiece may fall off due to an incomplete clamping, disadvantageously.